Beehive



S. DAVIS.

BEEHIVE. No. 9,883.

PATENTED JULY 26, 1853.

N N WN Tale, from Bil few @fzlce 7Z9 VoZ- of /653. OlrZy Draw Z723 flccdo daze 457 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SYLVESTER DAVIS, OF CLAREMONT, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

IBEEI-IIVE.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 9,883, dated July 26, 1858.

To all whom it may concern:

in which ment, on which the hives are placed; Fig. 2, is a longitudinalsection of the same, in the line as, m, of Fig. 1, and also of a hiveand honey box placed thereon; Fig. 3, a transverse section of a hive,honey box and: plazza, or open hive, 1n the line y, of Fig. 2

Fig. 4:, front elevation of a narrow basement,

a hive and a piazza; Fig. 5, view of a hive and a portion of thebasement,,with a box for transferring swarms'from full hives to; emptyones situated on the basement; Fig; 6, plan of a feed box to be placedover the hives, and Fig. 7, transverse section of the same.

Like letters refer to like figures.

A broad shallow box A, inclosed on all sides except in front, andforming a plat-. form or basement on which the hives are placed, isconstructed so as to support any desired number of hives. It may bedivided into any number of apartments by partitions extending from frontto back, so that each apartment may be appropriated to a small number ofhives (say two or four), and unconnected with the rest. Into the openfront of each of these apartments is inserted a drawer H, extending backabout half across the basement, and its back hav ing-the entire heightof the interior of the basement while its front has about half of thatheight. The remainder of the front of the basement above said drawers isclosed by sliding lids (Z, d. The drawers H, H, are intended to containsweetened water or other saccharin fluid for feeding the bees, withoutexposing them, in bad weather. The front end of each is composed of'athick board, or plank, and projects about half its thickness beyond thebasement, in which projectlng part a perpendicular aperture a, is made,reaching from the top to a level with the bottom of the drawer, andthence horizontally into the inside of the same, for the purparts in allthe:

pose of conveying the food into, without opening the drawer or exposingit to the depredations of insects. An aperture is also made through thefront of the drawer on a level with the bottom thereof, for drawing offthe food when not fit for further use. It is closed by a plug 6. A floatK, is placed in the bottom of each feeding drawer for the bees to standon, while feeding, and to proj tect them from being mired in the food.Figure 1, is a plan of a platform or base- For this purpose it isconstructed, first, with two or three slats of light wood and of slightthickness at the bottom, across which are placed, quite near each other,similar slats e, e, &c.; then, two or three more slats, parallel withthe bottom slats, are placed upon the second series; and above all isplaced a series of slats o, c, &c., directly over, and parallel with thesecond series. By this construction the bees, resting on the upperseries of slats, are never mired, as the fiuid never comes up betweenthe upper slats. The basement is provided with glass Windows in its top,over each drawer, for admitting lightand looking therein. The lid (Z, asalso the back of the drawer and of the basement, are provided withapertures u, 'v, 2, which are covered with fine wire gauze, for thepurpose of ventilation without admitting insects and vermin.

In the top of the basement, immediately in front of the back of eachdrawer H, is an aperture f, leading to the hives above; and immediatelybehind the back of each drawer is situated a sliding lid or valve, g, towhich a cord h, is attached, and reaching forward through the back ofthe drawer and up through the top of the basement. When the drawer ispulled out for cleaning, or other purposes, the line h, is pulled withthe other hand, which draws the lid 9, after the drawer and closes theaperture f, thereby prohibiting the bees from descending from the hives;but,'when the drawer is again pushed in, the said lid is shoved back andthe aperture f, consequently opened again. An aperture w, covered withwire gauze, opens from the back part of the basement into each hive, forthe purpose of ventilating the same. Behind this aperture is a trap doorS, in the top of the basementunder each hive, and it is operated bymeans of a line reaching down under the basement, and is occasionallylet down to clear the hive of filth.

The hives B, are placed upon the back part of the basement, and reachjust forward of the apertures f, f, &c. The lower edge of the front sideof each hive isbeveled off and projects back over said apertures; asshown at 2', Fig. 2, so that no filth can fall down through theapertures into the feeding boxes, but a free passage is afforded to thebees. Each hive is provided with a glass front for the purpose ofviewing the inside of the hive; but a sliding lid Z, shuts down beforethe glass and excludes the light from the inside of the hive. Betweenthe adjacent hives are inclosed spaces, as seen at m, Fig. 8, largeenough to allow the bees to pass up therein; and apertures j, j, &c., atthe bottom, as well as an aperture 70, at the top of each hive, opensfrom the inside into these spaces. I

In place of hives, at intervals of about 4 hives, is situated a piazza,or open hive, C, constructed of the same dimensions as, and resemblingthe hive, except that its rear end is open, as seen at q, Fig. 3. Ithas, however, no aperture in its upper part corresponding with theaperture is, in the hives; and the aperture (or apertures), at thebottom is closed by a sliding gate 10, so as to allow admittance to thepiazza, or not, as desired. Its front wall, also, is not beveled at thebottom as in the hives, so that no direct communication between thepiazza and the feeding drawer is allowed. The use of the piazza is toform a sheltered entrance to the hives for the bees, but which may beclosed at pleasure by the gate 29, when the weather is not suitable forthe bees to go abroad. It is also useful for separating a limited numberof hives into societies, having free and direct communication amongthemselves but not with those beyond the piazza, by closing its apertureon one side and leaving the other open.

Upon each hive is placed a honey box E, in which the bees may storeextra supplies of honey, but not breed; and which may be removed andreplaced, at pleasure, for procuring honey without disturbing the beesin the hives. They are arranged so that the space m, between eachadjacent pair of hives may communicate with two boxes, as shown at n,'n, Fig. 3. Each box is provided with a sliding glass lid on its frontend, which serves as a window whereby to ascertain the quantity of honeywithin, and also as a door for removing the honey therefrom. The boxesare covered tightly with a case F, which shuts down over them andexcludes the light. Each box is provided, at one corner, with aventilating aperture .9, covered with wire-gauze; and correspondingapertures, covered with wire-gauze, are formed in the case F, in cornersalternate with those of the boxes, as shown at t, t, Fig. 3, in order toexclude all light from the boxes. The

bees can pass from the feeding drawers to these boxes, by the aperturesj, j, &c., and spaces m, m, without disturbing the hives.

Fig. 5, represents the manner of transferring a swarm of bees from onehive into another. The empty hive, to be occupied by the bees, is put inits place on the basement A, as shown in the drawings. The full hive B,is then inverted and placed against the front of the drawer H, which ispartly drawn out. A box I, having its bottom and one side open, isplaced over the hive and drawer with its open side close to the basementA. The side opposite the open side projects down the side of the hivesufliciently to close the apertures at the bottom of the same, and thusprevents the escape of the bees, except into the basement, whence theysoon find their way into the empty hive, on the basement being pushedin.

When the drawer H, is removed for cleaning it, the lid 03, is pusheddown to the bottom of the basement, and another narrow lid inserted overit to close the entire front of that apartment of the basement.

Figs. 6 and 7, represent a plan and trans verse section of a feedingbox, similar in construction to the feeding drawer H, in the basement.It is to be placed over the hives in the place of a honey box E, withwhich it corresponds in size and arrangement, except that a passage m,leads from the passage m, between the hives, outside of the box, andcommunicates therewith by means of the aperture is, at the top. Thefloat N, with the double tiers of slats 0, and e, separated by crossslats, is arranged in a manner smilar to the float K, in the feeddrawer; and the food is supplied through the right-angled aperture 6/,and drawn off by removing the plug 6, in the same manner as the feeddrawer H. Its top is also provided with a ventilating aperture w, whichis protected by wire-gauze like those above described. This box isintended for feeding the bees in cold weather when the bees are toobenumbed to descend to the feed drawer below,the heat ascending from thehive raising the temperature in the said box sufficiently to enable thebees to go up and feed therein.

By constructing the float for the feeding drawer of multiplied series ofthin slats in such a manner that the upper series, upon which the beesstand, can never come in contact with the surface of the fluid bee food,I prevent the possibility of swamping the float, and miring or drowningthe bees. These floats heretofore have been constructed of a perforatedboard, or a single series of connected slats, which rested upon thesurface of the bee food. The bees, in feeding necessarily smear thesurface on which they stand, with more or less of the saccharine matter,and also the apertures through Which they feed; consequently, the directconnection-by means of capillary attractionbetween the smeared uppersurface of the float, and the fluid bee food below the same, will causethe float to settle, and be immersed by the ordinary Weight of thefeeding bees-as soon as its upper surface becomes thoroughly smearedandthereby cause the destruction of great numbers of the bees.

. What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent isThe manner of constructing the float K, or N, vizz-of tWo parallelseries of slightly separated thin slats, placed one directly over theother, and separated by two or three cross slats, and supported bysimilar cross slats beneath the Whole, for the purpose of allowing thebees to feed Without being liable to be mired in the food beneath.

The above specification of my improvements in bee-hives signed by methis 23 day of Aug. 1852.

SYLVESTER DAVIS.

Witnesses:

A. F. SNOW, EDWIN AINSWORTH.

